It's been a while since my last post....I've been doing all the usual stuff, plus studying - here's an essay I have just written for my English language course.

Accidents

Accidents are common place in everyday life, from cutting ones finger on a sharp food tin, to tripping up a badly laid paving slab in the street. It is said that the most common place to have an accident is in your own home, I guess, this is because we have our defences down, not expecting to walk into an open draw or trip over a discarded wellington boot! The accident and emergency departments of hospitals up and down the land, could fill a book, on a daily basis, with the tale of domestic dangers galore.


I personally, was an extremely accident prone young boy. My mother would remark that “Your file at the Brook” the local hospital, “Is as big a phone book”, in reference to just how many times I made a visit. It’s a shame that the mid 70’s to early 80’s, were before the introduction of the loyalty schemes’ now employed by so many organisations. I could have paid for the family to fly down to Spain with my ‘NHS points’! The most notable of accidents, was when I was around 4 years old. We were visiting an uncle, who lived not far, in a block of flats - which come to think of it is irrelevant. When we arrived, I insisted on walking along a short brick wall that surrounded the flats, about 3 feet in height. This was all going well, until I fell of the wall. Not content with the damage that ensued from the fall, I then proceeded to roll underneath a parked car, slicing my chin on the rear bumper. So, another tick in the the Brooks’ visitor book for me!.

I try and be less clumsy these days, however it seems that the eldest of my two sons rather takes after me in this sense and often has to be reminded of impending dangers, such as the aforementioned cupboard doors and discarded Wellington boots. I think that despite societies protestations, there will always be a place for ROSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), to spread the word of accident prevention.